Saturday, September 29, 2012

Corporate
Info: [Altered
from 1/23/11]A
Google search on Italy's Domori mostly finds retailers and the
occasional layperson like me, not news articles or other credible
sources of information. (One minor exception is a short blog post from 2005 by famed pastry chef David Lebovitz.) Domori is currently a
subsidiary of gruppo illy, which also owns several other high-end
brands including the obvious illycaffè. Otherwise I'll refrain from
making any claims about Domori as a company and just point you to the
areas of its website that talk about its plantation, the company today, its production process, and so on. It's not all that
enlightening, but the focus (whether in reality or just marketing
terms) seems to be on quality and flavor. The bars are very small and
pricey, so they'd better be high quality!

This
Bar:
I received the Porcelana from a friend, who absolutely loves Domori
and this bar in particular. It's made with prized criollo beans from
Venezuela, which supposedly have a subtler, “finer” taste.
Domori's website claims the Porcelana bar has “hints of bread,
butter, and jam for an exhilarating round palate.” Hm, okay.

Appearance:
Domori's thin, flat shape with a low-key sheen and orange undertone. (The photo above was taken some time after I received the bar, so my description is based on my having rubbed my thumb over the bloom evident there.)

Smell:
Not strong, but earthy, bitter, and roasted.

Taste:
Texture is super rich and creamy. Flavor is indeed subtle but with a
thin, bitter edge and long finish. I'm getting earthy and dried, like
dirt or mushrooms, plus there's that long-lasting but not especially
tannic (as is often the case) bitterness that reminds me of the
aftertaste of strong, dark-roasted coffee. Lots of complexity here.

Smell:
Mild, though a broken bar
reveals the scent of light, dried raspberries and strawberries, with
the freshness of freeze dried fruit (a la Just Tomatoes) rather than
than fruit that is sweet and moist or artificial and overpowering. I
should note that I opened this bar long before I had a chance to
review it, and sometimes that means a lot of the scent is lost.

Taste:
The chocolate is B.T. McElrath's usual, mild and creamy (see the
extra fat in the ingredients). The small, copious berry pieces add a
punch of tart, fruity flavor and a slight crunch and chewiness, and
the red flecks look nice in a broken bar, as you can see accurately
on the box. As a co-taster said as he grabbed for another square,
“This is such good chocolate!” Because berries aren't my thing I
won't go out of my way to buy this bar again, but if the description
sounds good to you, you probably won't be disappointed.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Corporate
Info: [Copied
from 6/2/12] Fearless is totally new to me, but I spied its frankly
adorable boxes (tiny elephant! lightning! cloud/bite out of corner!
friendly font!) on sale and bought a couple boxes. The company was
apparently founded in 2006 in California, uses recycled paper for the
outer boxes, and makes bean-to-bar chocolate with organic ingredients
and direct trade cacao from specific plantations in Brazil, with a
special focus on raw cacao. All of this may or may not mean anything
to you, but I think I can safely say that Fearless is full of good
intentions, part of what I'm seeing as a young cohort trying to bring
chocolate into the modern age more thoughtfully, with an eye toward
(or blatant focus on) sustainability and treating growers well. The
small-company, bean-to-bar model is one way of doing it (contrast
with Divine, for example), and it's a fine option. Good for them. Oh,
and Fearless currently produces only five items, a plain 75% bar and
four 70% bars with interesting flavor combos.

Appearance:
Fearless's usual fairly matte
bar with the great mold, though I'd venture (without having the
others in front of me) that the 75% chocolate is slightly glossier
and has a richer, redder hue than its fairly grey 70% base.

Smell:
Fresh, raw but rounded, earthy.

Taste:
Like Fearless's other bars,
this one crunches before melting into something smooth and thick. The
flavor is tart and beany, like cacao nibs with a super-creamy
texture; there are undertones of something fragrant and tropical,
maybe banana, but the predominant flavor is sour and somewhat tannic
without being seriously bitter or harsh.

Conclusion:
Fearless 75% Dark as Midnight
has a creamy texture and a bright and raw but tempered flavor. It's
wild cacao that's been tamed for your palate.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Corporate
Info: [Copied
from 6/2/12] Fearless is totally new to me, but I spied its frankly
adorable boxes (tiny elephant! lightning! cloud/bite out of corner!
friendly font!) on sale and bought a couple boxes. The company was
apparently founded in 2006 in California, uses recycled paper for the
outer boxes, and makes bean-to-bar chocolate with organic ingredients
and direct trade cacao from specific plantations in Brazil, with a
special focus on raw cacao. All of this may or may not mean anything
to you, but I think I can safely say that Fearless is full of good
intentions, part of what I'm seeing as a young cohort trying to bring
chocolate into the modern age more thoughtfully, with an eye toward
(or blatant focus on) sustainability and treating growers well. The
small-company, bean-to-bar model is one way of doing it (contrast
with Divine, for example), and it's a fine option. Good for them. Oh,
and Fearless currently produces only five items, a plain 75% bar and
four 70% bars with interesting flavor combos.

Appearance:
Like Fearless's other bars, this one is matte and greyish, in
Fearless's delightful mold of elephants, stars, and a bite or cloud
cut out of the corner.

Smell:
Raw,
beany, rich, but not sharp or strong.

Taste:
Texture starts crunchy and melts smooth and thick, with the small
seeds adding a popping crunch that makes the mouthfeel more
complex—you have to chew this bar. Flavor is earthy, chocolatey,
balanced in a close-to-the-tree way, with some sour and bitter notes
but nothing harsh or separated from the other flavors, and the seeds
contribute a slight nuttiness (and, yes, stick in your teeth a
little). I'm a fan of Fearless!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

I'd
been meaning to visit Grendelsweets since I wrote up my posts on
tasting chocolate in Seattle, but I rarely make it to the area where
the shop is located. The other day I had an appointment nearby, so I
stopped in the shop and bought several confections, though I have yet
to try the hyped (and tasty sounding) hot chocolate. Here's a brief
review.

Grendelsweets
is a small shop inside Crossroads Mall, just a confection counter to
the left of the door and a prep area in the back. The woman who
helped me was positive and patient, but more importantly, the
chocolates are made in-house with many organic, fair trade (etc.)
ingredients and in interesting flavors. I chose a half dozen, which I
came home and split with my co-taster. We were both pleasantly
surprised by the smoothness of the ganaches and coatings and the
complex, balanced flavors, but I was most impressed by the fact that
none of my selections turned out to be too sweet—even potentially
cloying dipped marzipan and buttercream-filled orange cream, the
latter of which was flavored with spicy, rich orange oil.

So
okay, this is just another confection store, not one of our local bar
shops or bean-to-bar producers, but in the end I decided to review
the shop because it deserves it: For those in the area, Grendelsweets
is a worthy destination for high quality confections.

Welcome to Dark Chocolate Diary! I'm Molly D, and I review dark chocolate bars and confections. I like small companies, fair trade, and organics. I like bars that aren't too sweet and flavorings I can really taste. I like to use the word "balance." And I'll try anything once.